May it please God to bless us
together this evening as we meditate upon his word. Let us turn to
the book of Genesis chapter 24 and reading verse 56. The book
of Genesis chapter 24 and reading verse 56. And he said unto them, Hinder
me not, seeing the Lord hath prospered my way, send me a way
that I may go to my master." We are thankful that the Word of
God contains some very wonderful statements, accounts of God's
gracious dealings with his people. And we may think, well of course
these things are recorded just to prove to us the greatness
of God. Of course they are. But they
are also there to encourage you and me today to realise that
the same God lives, the same God works, the same God hears
and answers prayer. And we should therefore not think
that we come before a God today who is any different. But we
come to that unchanging God, and therefore may we come rightly.
Now, we must realise that the account we have here, what was
the effect? It brought forth honour and glory
to God. And surely that must be the result
of our prayers, the result of answers to our prayers. It must
bring forth honour and glory to God. And as we've gone through
this account this evening in this 24th chapter of Genesis,
we see very clearly how the Lord was in it. And how the Lord directed,
first of all, Abraham to seek for those right things. He wanted
a good wife for his son. And that's a good thing, you
know, to desire a good wife. He knew that the women who were,
we might call, local, were not really suitable because they
weren't of the promised tribes. And therefore, he desired that
his servant might go forth and to seek a wife for his son Isaac. Well, it was a great commission,
wasn't it, for this servant to do. that Abraham gives his servant
some encouragement and gives him some encouragement from the
history that he was able to speak of and he says the Lord God of
heaven which took me from my father's house and from the land
of my kindred and which spake unto me and that swear unto me
saying unto thy seed when I give this land he shall send his angel
before thee And now shall I take a wife unto my son from thence."
God had been with Abraham. God had spoken to him. Taught
him to leave his homeland, Ur of the Chaldees. And he had to
go forth, not knowing whether he went. But God was with him. And God had blessed him. And
God had promised him that his seed should indeed cover the
earth. And we know that there have been
a long time of testing for that. Abraham was an old man when he
had Isaac. He'd waited many, many years. And Sarah was an old woman. But
God wrought a great miracle so that Isaac was born. And therefore,
really here we see that Abraham is encouraging his servant with
the evidence that he had been blessed with to know that there
was a God in heaven, a God who was to be worshipped and a God
who would hear and answer prayer. And so we have the obedient servant. He didn't argue, he went forth
and he took the camels and departed. And he went a long journey to
Mesopotamia and the city of Nahor. And what did he do then? Did
he look around to say, well now, I wonder what kind of women there
are here. I'll have a look and see what one I might think might
be suitable. Not at all. What did he do? He prayed to God. What a wonderful
example it is. He made his camels to kneel down
without the city by the well of water at the time of the evening,
even the time that women go out to water, draw water, and he
said. And so he comes and he prays to God. That was the first
thing he did. Sometimes it's almost the last
thing that people do today. They don't pray until they're
in a real difficult situation, a real straight And they can't
seem to work things out, and then they resort to prayer. It's a good thing, you know,
if we resort to prayer first, not last. And so we have this man of God,
this servant of Abraham, praying to God. And we've read the prayer
that he prayed. And we realise what occurred. Now he prayed in his heart. I
told that later on. He prayed in his heart. He didn't
stand up and make a big fuss and make a big noise. He prayed
in his heart. But he prayed to his God. And
before he finished praying, Rebecca was on her way. Now, just ponder that for a moment. Rebecca came from a fairly wealthy
family. She had, as we know, maids and
damsels to help her. And we might think, well surely
it would have been reasonable for those maids to have gone
out and to have brought water. But we see in God's providence
that Rebecca came forth on her way before Abraham's servant
had concluded his prayer. See, the Lord knows what he will
do. The Lord knows how he will pray. And therefore, it isn't
necessary to wait for the end of the prayer. God knew what
would occur. And so, Rebekah came forth and
there was A condition, Abraham's servant had requested of God
that there may be evidence given to him of the right person. He wasn't really demanding things,
he was asking that God would incline the right person to do
those things which he asked for so that he might know that she
was the one ordained to be the wife of Isaac. And so we see, what was the result? He watched. He watched, you see,
and we're told, and he watched to see whether this would be
from the Lord. when this was of the Lord. And I believe when we truly pray
for God's direction and God's guidance, we won't forget what
we prayed for. We'll be watching to see whether
it is in accordance with God's purpose for us. And so, we read,
this damsel came forth, and the servant ran to meet her. And
when she had done giving him, she said, I will draw water for
thy camels also. And she hasted and emptied her
pitcher into the trough. And so on. The man, wondering
at her, held his peace. to whether the Lord had made
his journey prosperous or not. He was watching. He was waiting
to see the Lord appearing for him. And it was a very big occasion
in his life. My friends, we may have big occasions
in our life. And we may have prayed earnestly
like this man prayed. The Lord would appear. and answer
our prayers. And then we're a blessing if
we're watching to see whether the Lord will answer those prayers. And so, it came to pass that
as the camels were done drinking, the man took a gold nearing of
half a shackle weight and two bracelets for a hands of ten
shackles and he asked for a question. He said, whose daughter are they? He didn't know. He had wonderful evidence of
God's hearing his prayer. Now he asks the question. He
asks her, who art thou? And is there room in thy father's
house for us to lodge in? And she tells him who she was. And what was the result? It's
very important and telling for us to realise. and what the result
was in the life of this servant of Abraham. What did he do? What did he do? He bowed down his head and worshipped
the Lord. And that is very significant.
And that is very important for you and me in our life today.
When the Lord graciously comes and hears our prayers and answers
them, in a very wonderful way. What is the result? To bow our
head and worship the Lord and say, blessed be the Lord God. He was able to say, blessed be
the Lord God of my master Abraham who hath not left destitute,
my master of his mercy and his truth, I being in the way The
Lord led me to the house of my master's brethren." And the answer
there was to his prayer and how he was able to acknowledge it. It's always good, isn't it, if
you and I can acknowledge answers to prayer. And we're saying,
for we still have a God today who does hear and answer our
prayers. And we may be able to come and
say, like this man, Blessed be the Lord God. Oh, my friends,
what a wonderful thing it is to have a God who hears and answers
prayer. And there is a God who hears
and answers prayer. And what a blessing if we know
that God who hears and answers prayer. And we don't come to
a God who we don't know. We don't come to a God who does
not answer prayer. And then we see that this wonderful
account We see it unfolding. We see it unfolding in how we
see the Lord making the way and the Lord wonderfully appearing.
We read the account, don't we? We read the history. We see what
occurred. But you know, let's think of
our position if we were like Abraham's servant now and the
woman, Rebecca had gone off to tell her father and her brother
and they came forth and they saw the man and they relied upon
the words of Rebecca. Rebecca no doubt had told them
what this man had told her, and how he blessed his God. And so
they came, and with this wonderful salutation, come in! Thou, blessed of the Lord, wherefore
standest thou without? Yes, there was a wonderful invitation
to come in. It is a wonderful invitation
to the Living Church of God. Those who have heard, God has
heard their prayers. God has answered their prayers.
What a gracious and glorious word it was. And what a gracious
and glorious word it is still today, to hear the word of God
speaking to us in terms like this, and saying to us, come
in, thou blessed of the Lord. And we are blessed of the Lord,
if the Lord has indeed heard and answered our prayers. The
Lord has been gracious to us. We are blessed with the Lord.
And how wonderful it is then to hear such words as this. Come
in, thou blessed of the Lord. And the man went in and he came
into the house. Now, we see the priority in this
man's life. We see the priority that they
set food before him. to eat and to drink. That seemed
very reasonable, didn't it? But he said, I won't eat, yet,
until I've told my errand. He had something to say. He didn't
say, well, that's alright, let's have some food now. More important,
was he had to testify of God's dealings and God's answer to
prayer and to God's purpose for Rebecca and therefore he said
I must tell my Aaron and he was encouraged speak on It's a wonderful thing, isn't
it, when we desire to testify of what God has done. More important than natural food. And the Church of God would encourage,
and the Church of God would say, speak on. And so he reiterated
then. He told them who he was. He reiterated
the account that we already read, one or two little differences,
but basically he speaks and tells them what had occurred and how
the Lord had appeared. And what the Lord had spoken
through Abraham to him, and this was the statement, the Lord before
whom I walk will send his angel with thee. and prosper thy way." What does that mean? I believe
it means this. Abraham was blessed with living
faith. Faith to believe. He'd been blessed
already. He'd been favoured with faith.
And now we see his faith is stretching out again. In true humbleness
to honour his God, and he's able to testify and say, the Lord
before whom I walk will send his angel with thee and prosper
thy way. Again, it is very beautiful and
wonderful to observe the honesty which we read of in the Word
of God. There is not any mock humility. There is honesty. Abraham was honest. He knew his
God. He didn't pretend he didn't know
him. He knew his God and he was able therefore to testify in
this way, the Lord before whom I walk will send his angel with
thee. What a blessing it would be today
if we are able to testify the Lord, the Lord Jesus, before
whom we walk will go with us. He says, I will never leave thee,
nor forsake thee. And therefore we may boldly say,
the Lord is my helper, I will not fear what man shall do unto
me. The Lord is with us, if Christ
is with us. As the Apostle said, I can do
all things through Christ that strengthens me. There was a secret
to Paul. There was a secret to Abraham. And there is a secret, my friends,
to you and me today. And so he came and carries on
with the account and speaks of the result of his prayer and
what Rebecca came and did. And again he tells us, he tells
us what he did. And I bow down my head and worship
the Lord and bless the Lord God and my master Abraham, which
had led me in the right way to take my master's brother's daughter
unto his son." The Lord never makes a mistake. The Lord always
leads in the right way. What a good thing that is, isn't
it? To have such a God. When we perhaps turn to the left
and turn to the right, the Lord leads in the right way. He led
Abraham's servant in the right way. It was a long journey. He
came to the edge of the city and the Lord heard and answered
his prayer. And now he requests and he says
this. And now, if you would do kindly
and truly with my master, tell me. And if not, tell me that
I may turn to the right hand or to the left. And what was
the result? Naban and Bethuel answered and
said, the thing proceedeth from the Lord. We cannot speak unto
thee, bad or good. So clear, wasn't it? It had proceeded
from the Lord. And it's a wonderful thing in
our lives, when we are able to observe that it's proceeding
from the Lord. Whatever that may be, a blessing
it is to know that it's proceeding from the Lord. That's what Laban
and Bethuel had observed. They now stated it and they go
further. And they say, Behold, Rebekah
is before thee, take her and go and let her be thy master's
son's wife, as the Lord hath spoken. And again, what was the
reaction to Abraham's servant? And when he heard these words,
he worshipped the Lord, bowing himself to the earth. He wasn't
ashamed of his religion, was he? No, there he was before these
people and he bowed down and worshipped the Lord. May God
have heard his prayer. May God have so wonderfully provided
for him. And then you see, they then rose
up and they then ate and drank and he stayed there that night
and in the morning He said, send me away unto my master. And her brother and her mother
said, let the damsel abide with us a few days, and at least ten. After that she shall go. It wasn't
an unreasonable request, was it? Because if she was going
a long way away, probably they would never see her again. There
had been a wonderful change, a very sudden change in circumstances. But this man of God, this servant
of God, he wasn't to be moved from that which God had done
for him. And he speaks and says, Hinder me not, seeing the Lord
hath prospered my way. And the Lord, my friends, prospers
our way in whatever that may be. May we desire that we are
not hindered in it. You see, there was a very reasonable
request put here to hinder this girl. She was going away, let
her stay for ten days. Oh, says this man of God, Abraham's
servant, hinder me not, seeing the Lord hath prospered my way. The Lord had prospered her way,
his way rather. and how clear it was. He didn't
ever want to hinder God's work. He wanted it to go forth. He
wanted it to continue. And he wanted God to have the
honour and God to have the glory. Hinder me not, seeing the Lord
has prospered my way. What a wonderful statement that
was. What a wonderful statement it
is really. in our lives today to realise that the Lord has
blessed. The Lord has blessed this man.
The Lord has favoured him. He didn't want now to be stopped.
He didn't want to be halted. He wanted to proceed. Hinder
me not. Hinder me not, seeing the Lord
hath prospered my way. Well, it's a great blessing if
God has prospered our way. And my friends, God has prospered
our way if in like manner God has heard our prayers and God
has answered our prayers. It may not have been in quite
such a dramatic way as this, but nonetheless, if God has heard
and answered our prayers, What a wonderful thing that is. What
a wonderful testimony it is. The Lord has looked upon us in
love to our soul. The Lord has remembered us with
that favour He bears to His people. The Lord has not turned us away.
The Lord has looked upon us graciously He's heard and answered our requests. And then sometimes when these
temptations come before us, well, we just take it easy perhaps
for a bit. No, this man says, hinder me
not. He wanted to follow what the
Lord had directed him in. He wanted to follow the Lord
My friends, what a gracious blessing it is if you and I, we might
say it like this, are made willing in a day of His power. The day
of power had come on this occasion. What a day it was. What a blessing
it is if God makes us willing in a day of His power. My friends,
that's God's power. It's not your power or my power.
And the Lord gives us that real strength to do His will. Things perhaps that we would
have never thought possible. Paul the Apostle had many things
to do. There's no doubt he would have
thought impossible to face. But when he comes towards the
end of his life, as he writes to the Philippians, he tells
us I can do all things through Christ that strengthens me. And we know, don't we, in the
Apostle's life, what things he needed. He had to be strengthened
in to endure all those many, many obstacles that came into
his life. And he had to face them, and
he endured them. What a blessing it was. That's
why he was able to give us the account which he did in the second
chapter to the Corinthians. He gives us that account. He
tells us who he was. It's interesting that this man
says who he was. I'm Abraham's servant. And Paul
tells us, he says, Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they the seed of
Abraham? So am I. Are they ministers of
Christ? I speak as a fool. I am more.
And then he gives us a list of those things which he had to
endure. He had to fight. He said, in labours more abundant,
in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent in death
oft, of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one, thrice
was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered
shipwrecked, a night and a day I've been in the deep, in journeys
often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils
by mine own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in
the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils
among false brethren, in weariness and painfulness, in watchings
often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and
nakedness, beside all those things that are without, that which
cometh daily upon me, the care of all the churches. And he comes
and says this then, what was he glorying in? He tells us,
If I must need glory, I will glory for the things which concern
mine infirmities. The God and Father of our Lord
Jesus Christ, which is blessed for ever, evermore knoweth that
I lie not. Yes, he was resting in what Christ
had done. He gloried in what Christ has
done. If I need glory, I will glory
the things which concern mine in firmnesses. I can do all things
through Christ that strengthens me. Now this man, this servant
of God, this servant of Abraham, he was able to do those things.
They were great things to do. But God was with him. And God
blessed him. And the secret really was there.
He couldn't do anything by himself. He prayed. He prayed. And God appeared. God appeared. So he could have gone all round
the town searching for a suitable wife. But no, God appeared and
heard his prayer. Well, I bless you, my friends,
for us today. If God hears and answers our prayers, and therefore
brings us to this situation in conclusion, hinder me not, seeing
that the Lord hath prospered my way. Now, it's very humbling. when God hears and answers prayer. It's very humbling to know that
God, the Almighty God, the Ruler of the Universe, has prospered
our way. The Lord has bowed down His ear
and heard our prayers. Yes, the crooked things have
been made straight. The rough places have become
plain. The mountains have flowed down
at His presence. And we can come and give God
the honour and the glory. And then it is that we bow down
and worship. It's a wonderful thing to worship
the Lord. It's a wonderful thing to acknowledge
who the Lord is. To come to that place and to
know we have a God who hears and answers prayer. Now my friends
today, many years have passed since Abraham's servant prayed
in this way. Many, many prayers have gone
up to Almighty God in the intervening period. But we can come today,
in our time of need, and we can come to this same God, and we
can commit our way unto the Lord, and we can seek the Lord will
appear, the Lord will bless us, and we can believe, like Abraham,
the Lord would appear, the Lord would provide, Wonderful it is to have living
faith, to be able to come to that place and say, yes, I believe.
He who has helped me hitherto will help me all my journey through
and give me daily cause to raise new Ebenezers to His praise. See that stone, that Ebenezer
stone was put up to remind Israel of what the Lord had done. It's
a good thing for you and me in our life if we have some stones
that we can raise to remind us of what God has done and be able
to confirm, yes, the Lord has helped and be able to say, I
to the end shall endure. Yes, by the grace of God we shall
endure. And so let us come tonight and
thank God for the Word of God and to remember The words that
he came and spoke to Laban and the family there, he said, Hinder
me not, seeing the thing, the Lord, hath prospered my way. Send me away, and I may go to
my master. And of course they called Rebecca,
and they asked her, now this was a very new experience to
her, she had only met this man the previous day, and they asked
her, And that great question. And the question was, will thou
go with this man? And what was the answer? I will
go. And it may come to us in this
way. The world may ask us, will we
go with this man? Who is this man? The Lord Jesus
Christ. Will we go with him? We don't know what the future
holds. She didn't know what the future held. We may know what
the future holds. But you see, she was given faith.
Abraham was given faith. Abraham's servant was given faith.
And she was given faith. To be able to come and say, very
simply, I will go. What a blessing for us today,
if God gives us that living faith to say, I will go. I will go
with that despised and crucified man, the Lord Jesus Christ. I will go with Him, I will follow
Him. My friends, it is a wonderful
blessing to be made willing in the day of His power to follow
the Saviour and to do His will and to worship Him in spirit
and in truth. Amen.